A man who fled war-torn Sudan is on trial for using a British passport he initially claimed to have ‘found’ in an attempt to board a flight from Bahrain to the UK where he hoped to claim asylum.
The 36-year-old admitted to entering the kingdom from Saudi Arabia on false pretences at the High Criminal Court but denied that he had committed a crime.
He has been charged with intentionally giving incorrect information to a government body, using a travel document that belonged to someone else, receiving an entry visa through deception and illegally entering Bahrain.
“Your Honours, I come from a persecuted ethnic group in Sudan,” he told judges at his first hearing. “There is a genocide going on there, and I’m trying to obtain asylum from anywhere.
“When I found an opportunity to leave the country, I did,” the defendant, who comes from the devastated Darfur region, said.
The refugee earlier told the Public Prosecution about his torturous journey out of the southwest of Sudan, having gone to Chad on foot but soon returned home due to the squalid conditions he experienced there.
On his second attempt, he took a ferry and ultimately ended up in Saudi Arabia, then tried to fly to the UK, via Bahrain.
According to court documents, the Sudanese man entered Bahrain through the King Fahad Causeway in January and was successfully issued a visa-on-entry thanks to the UK passport he was carrying.
While attempting to board a flight to London, passport control officers discovered the alleged impersonation, as the passport had been reported as lost and was flagged in official systems following a circular alert issued by Interpol.
The Sudanese man was charged with providing false information to be entered into a government database and deceiving public employees.
Passport control officers testified that the defendant did not look like the photograph on his travel document and that his real name was different than that of the person it belonged to.
In initial questioning, the Sudanese man claimed to have found the travel document in Saudi Arabia by chance but later admitted to buying the lost passport in an attempt to reach the UK.
“There has been an escalation in human rights abuses in Sudan and a widening of the area of armed conflict across the nation,” the man’s lawyer stated in a memorandum submitted to judges.
“The United Nations states that civilians are being targeted along with crucial infrastructure, and half of the population is experiencing food insecurity.
“Meanwhile, the UK has one of the world’s strongest passports and grants access to many countries, while a person with a Sudanese passport can only go to a handful of countries without a visa.
“The defendant is from the Darfur region, where more than 5,000 people were massacred in the city of El Geneina. He and his family were displaced and travelled to Chad, where there is no hope for life, so he returned to Sudan to find a job and provide for his family and elderly parents.
“He couldn’t obtain employment because of racial discrimination. Also, he is perpetually under threat of death or exclusion due to his identity.
“This led him to flee to a country that protects personal freedoms and welcomes those who are persecuted.”
Judges set March 25 as the date a verdict will be issued in the case.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))